Broadband

ntlbell

For years now FG/Labour and today I heard the sinners talking about broadband as if it's a key issue for voters.

When FG particulary Richard Bruton brought it up years ago it was an issue as we had very low broadband penetration, today ok, we're not were we could be regarding pentreation and speeds. but is it really an important issue for voters? with the amount of problems going on in the country at the moment is broadband a high priority? would a party's policy on broadband lean you one way or another?

As someone who is in IT and depends on it and lucky enough to be in an area were I can get it, It's easy for me to say it's a non issue, but if I was still on dial up or had no internet access in the home at all, I don't think it's something I would be considering during this election.

Is it an issue for you?

The Volt

Absolutely. How can we get people to invest here without a proper IT infrastructure? It's a no brainer really, just like the current minister for communications who if he had his way, we would be communicating via flags and smoke signals.

Labour recently published their Digital plan for Ireland.

Kensington

From a personal point of view for many, its a non issue. But for the future of the economy its vital.

You can't build a "smart economy", keep at the forefront of the ICT industry or become leaders in cloud computing using 3G broadband sticks...

ntlbell

Kensington wrote: »

From a personal point of view for many, its a non issue. But for the future of the economy its vital.

You can't build a "smart economy", keep at the forefront of the ICT industry or become leaders in cloud computing using 3G broadband sticks...

Well I never bought into the whole "smart economy" nonsense and I'm not sure how given granny smith in the back end of mayo a 100mb line is going to get us to be leaders in cloud computing?

Sponge Bob

Kensington wrote: »

You can't build a "smart economy", keep at the forefront of the ICT industry or become leaders in cloud computing using 3G broadband sticks...

Course you can if you are Eamon Ryan. "Smart" and "Green" means whole datacenters hanging off the back of a 3g stick. This is, after all the man who said that Korean Broadband is crap because he could not get his mobilephone to work there ....of course to this day Ryan does not know that they use a different Mobile Telephone system in Korea...not GSM...and therefore he cannot roam when over there.

FF are no better, Willie O Dea FFS At least FG and Labour have some ambition.

cancercowboy

ntlbell wrote: »

Well I never bought into the whole "smart economy" nonsense and I'm not sure how given granny smith in the back end of mayo a 100mb line is going to get us to be leaders in cloud computing?

Well Granny Smith isn't who we are talking about. We are talking about multinational corporations who want to locate their business here in Ireland, take advantage of our low corporation tax rate, and take advantage of cheap rent in places in Ireland that are not Dublin... but if all they can get is a 2 MB line then it ain't gonna happen now is it?

ntlbell

cancercowboy wrote: »

Well Granny Smith isn't who we are talking about. We are talking about multinational corporations who want to locate their business here in Ireland, take advantage of our low corporation tax rate, and take advantage of cheap rent in places in Ireland that are not Dublin... but if all they can get is a 2 MB line then it ain't gonna happen now is it?

It might not be who you're talking about but when questioned on it they're talking about residential BB penetration and pull out stats on where we are in europe etc, not just large multinationals.

I'm not convinced it is a show stopper for large companies, There's very few counties now where if a company wanted to locate we can't provide leased lines.

Kensington

Voltwad wrote:

Absolutely. How can we get people to invest here without a proper IT infrastructure? It's a no brainer really, just like the current minister for communications who if he had his way, we would be communicating via flags and smoke signals.

He wouldn't even allow that. Think of all those carbon credits and CO2 emissions from the smoke

Sponge Bob wrote:

Course you can if you are Eamon Ryan. "Smart" and "Green" means whole datacenters hanging off the back of a 3g stick.

Spot on (unfortunately!). Maybe someone should tell him how much power the sheer number of cell sites required for island wide coverage will suck up...

ntlbell wrote:

I'm not sure how given granny smith in the back end of mayo a 100mb line is going to get us to be leaders in cloud computing?

Its exactly as cancercowboy mentions. If I want to locate a massive data centre here, then if this country had true universal access to broadband, I could stick a massive datacentre in the most remote part of Donegal, at a fraction of the cost of Dublin.

To look at it simply, Donegal gets high tech jobs, the company's overheads (rent, rates) are far lower, profit is subsequently higher hence the state takes their 12.5% on a bigger amount.

ntlbell

Kensington wrote: »

He wouldn't even allow that. Think of all those carbon credits and CO2 emissions from the smoke


Spot on (unfortunately!). Maybe someone should tell him how much power the sheer number of cell sites required for island wide coverage will suck up...


Its exactly as cancercowboy mentions. If I want to locate a massive data centre here, then if this country had true universal access to broadband, I could stick a massive datacentre in the most remote part of Donegal, at a fraction of the cost of Dublin.

To look at it simply, Donegal gets high tech jobs, the company's overheads (rent, rates) are far lower, profit is subsequently higher hence the state takes their 12.5% on a bigger amount.

As I said, if you want to build a "massive" DC just about anywhere in Ireland you will get ISP's to acomidate you because it will be profitable for the ISP to do so.

It's not profitable to dig up a road to give granny smith in some remote area to make her yahoo bingo run quicker.

BB is not the only reason most of the large IT companies choose dublin. There's plenty of other counties that have good infrastructure and cheaper rents but they choose Dublin.

Liamario

Personally, I couldn't give two hoots about the 6 people who live in Connemara. Broadband in this country is a joke for anyone outside of Dublin. I welcome this proposal from a consumer point of view.
It will also only help businesses as well.

That's reason enough for me.

Sponge Bob

Kensington wrote: »

Its exactly as cancercowboy mentions. If I want to locate a massive data centre here, then if this country had true universal access to broadband, I could stick a massive datacentre in the most remote part of Donegal, at a fraction of the cost of Dublin.

To look at it simply, Donegal gets high tech jobs, the company's overheads (rent, rates) are far lower, profit is subsequently higher hence the state takes their 12.5% on a bigger amount.

Not forgetting that datacentres want to locate in the west where the cheap lekky _SHOULD_ be seeing as the generation is there ( Moneypoint/Gas/Wind) not in Dublin where the grid cannot take any large datacentres because it is stressed out carting electricity to Dublin from the west.

However the smart green goblin would not contenance any national scale fibre project despite the fact that provisioning fibre on ducts largely built along the new motorways is quicker and much cheaper than building another power line to Dublin where the local greens would whinge rather large.

The situation now is that:

1. No internationally large scale datacentric operation will set up in Dublin owing to grid inadequacies and lekky costs among other problems and
2. They cannot set up anywhere else owing to national fibre inadequacies.

Perfect Lose Lose. You can't get smarter or greener than that lads

I did not even get started on retail broadband

ntlbell

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The situation now is that:

1. No internationally large scale datacentric operation will set up in Dublin owing to grid inadequacies and lekky costs among other problems and
2. They cannot set up anywhere else owing to national fibre inadequacies.

Perfect Lose Lose. You can't get smarter or greener than that lads

I did not even get started on retail broadband

Google? Built their own DC's in D12.

Can you get more datacentric than that?

Sponge Bob

ntlbell wrote: »

Google? Built their own DC's in D12.

Since either Google in D12 or MS in Sandyford no new datacentres got a grid connection. Ring the ESB and ask for one for the crack, they will send you to Eirgrid and Eirgrid will show you the door.

The more technical aspect of the published broadband policies are being covered in the in the Infrastructure forum here by the way.

ntlbell

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Since either Google in D12 or MS in Sandyford no new datacentres got a grid connection. Ring the ESB and ask for one for the crack, they will send you to Eirgrid and Eirgrid will show you the door.

The more technical aspect of the published broadband policies are being covered in the in the Infrastructure forum here by the way.

Is servecentric not on the grid?

Sponge Bob

Servcentric and Google are connected for years. Which bit of "no new datacentres" do you not understand ????

ntlbell

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Servcentric and Google are connected for years. Which bit of "no new datacentres" do you not understand ????

I'm obviously a bit thick, thanks for pointing out my stupidity.

I was referring to Dediserve, I'm not making a point I'm asking a question.

Sponge Bob

Apropos SF mentioned earlier , they published a 10 point plan containing this point below. It is snakeoil as I will explain.

"Improving communications infrastructure. Augment the current National Broadband Scheme to provide a fibre-optic island-wide network. Fast-track the €435million spend so that it is delivered beginning in 2011 instead of 2013. This will provide in the region of 4,500 jobs directly and 1,700 jobs indirectly. Funding required = €435m."

Now you can't catch ole Sponge Bob out that quick, I recognised that there number €435m because it comes from here on page 128

Much of that money is already spent, eg €40m on the NBS. It is GONE.

€120m on Phase 2 MAN deployments like Newtownkennedy, spent. Schools broadband, spent. Digital Television, spent.

Then the cutback of 20% to all post 2008 capital programmes is to be applied as well.

No more than €150m of that 2006 era earmark remains 'unspent'. At lest FG and Labour propose new money be spent ...certainly FG . Time to ignore the shinners as usual